d&d practitioners survey - lafayette college

2009 D&D Practitioner Survey,Lee and Polletta

D&D Practitioners Survey: What is the State of the Field?

Caroline W. LeeLafayette College

andFrancesca Polletta

University of California, Irvine

http://sites.lafayette.edu/ddps/


About theresearchers

Francesca PollettaSociologist, UC Irvine

Caroline LeeSociologist, Lafayette College

Research interests:deliberative democracycollaborative governancesocial movements


Why a survey?• Survey questions grew out of qualitative field work on

D&D professionals by Caroline Lee and qualitativecontent analysis of the role of gender in deliberativeforums by Francesca Polletta

• Other surveys have not sampled across D&Dorganizations and methods

• Are there larger trends not visible from ground-level?

• For more information on survey rationale and limitations,please visit: http://sites.lafayette.edu/ddps/


What are we looking for?

Growing field• Where did it come from?• What does it look like now?• Where is it going?


Non-random, self-selected sample using over 20 onlinecommunities and listservs as sampling frames, including:

North American Chapters


General survey information• 45 questions• Launched 9/23/09, closed 10/31/09• 434 respondents completed the survey


Entering the Field

These slides provide information about thetiming of respondents’ entrance into the field,their background and preparation, and their

training experience.


Median year of initial interest: 1996Median year of first facilitation: 1998


Seventy-one percent of respondents have an advanced degree orcertificate. Those advanced degrees are in a wide variety ofspecialties:


Seventy-two percent of respondents have participated in at least one training program.Those with training experience had participated in 2.4 training programs on average.

The most common trainings in the "Other" category were National Issues Forums trainings, alternativedispute resolution and conflict resolution trainings, group process trainings, Future Search trainings,and Appreciative Inquiry trainings.


Current PracticeThese slides provide information aboutrespondents’ current practice, includingnumber and type of projects, common

sponsors, methods used, and topics covered.


Median number of events facilitated per year: 7Mode (most common answer): 3


Median budget size: $6000 Mode (most common answer): $0


On average, respondents had covered 5 topics in the last two years.


Field Values and BeliefsThese slides provide information on respondents’

perspectives on opportunities and challenges in thefield as it grows, including beliefs about successfuloutcomes, common problems, who should lead the

field going forward, and which research is most helpfulto current practice. Some questions also probe

respondents’ sense of others’ perspectives on dialogueand deliberation efforts.


Respondents generally believe that it is important to measure manydifferent outcomes as indicators of process success. The only outcomereceiving much less support than other options was whether money wassaved as a result of a D&D process (27%).


Respondents chose participant satisfaction as a success indicator more oftenthan sponsor satisfaction.


Respondents who did choose sponsor satisfaction nearly always chose participantsatisfaction as well.

N=199


Moving forward


The Role of Gender in Deliberation

These slides provide information on howrespondents think gender might affectrecruitment of participants or styles of

participation. Demographic information on thegender balance of survey respondents is also

included here.


Demographics

These slides provide information about thedemographics of survey respondents,

including their memberships, employment inD&D work, and involvement in field-building

events.


Country of Origin

The target population was in the U.S., but the surveywas distributed worldwide.

U.S.: 343 Canada: 43 Australia: 12 UK: 7Countries with 1-3 respondents: Argentina, Bolivia,

Denmark, Ecuador, Germany, Ghana, Greece, India,Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Malaysia, Netherlands, NewZealand, Nigeria, Spain, Taiwan, Venezuela


Median age: 53 Ave. age: 51.5 Mode: 62 (22 in 1969)


93% of professionals belong to at least one organization. Those who belong to at leastone professional association belong to 1.6 organizations on average.


Employment in Dialogue and Deliberation Work


251 practitioners, or 58% of all respondents, reported participation in atleast one of the field-building events listed in the chart below. On average,practitioners who reported participation had participated in two of theevents.


Thanks so much for your interestin the survey.

For more information about the sample, surveylimitations, and opportunities to discuss the results,please see the survey website, at:

http://sites.lafayette.edu/ddps

d&d practitioners survey - lafayette college

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